Computer users today may attach a secondary display to their personal computers (“PCs”) and configure the behavior of both the primary and secondary displays via the PC operating systems (“OS”). For example, on a PC running one of the Microsoft Windows™ family of operating systems, the secondary display may function in one of two ways. First, the PC may treat the secondary display as a duplicate of the primary display. This scenario often arises when a laptop PC user docks their laptop in a docking station and desires to use a larger display coupled to the docking station. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 1, when coupled to PC 100, any application (illustrated as “PC Application #1”) that appears on Primary Display 105 may also appear on Secondary Display 150.
Alternatively, Secondary Display 150 may be configured to extend the screen real estate of Primary Display 105. In this configuration, Secondary Display 150 behaves as an extension of Primary Display 105. As illustrated in FIG. 1, in this embodiment, Secondary Display 150 may display a different application (“PC Application #2”) than the application displayed on Primary Display 105 (“PC Application #1”). This configuration is typically used by sophisticated computer users, such as computer programmers, who require a large amount of screen real estate to view multiple screens and/or applications.
Regardless of the configuration, however, secondary displays are typically non-intelligent devices attached to the main PC system. In other words, these displays do not include any processing capabilities, and if detached from the main PC system, these displays may not be functional for any other purpose.
Personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), on the other hand, are intelligent devices that may be attached or docked to PC systems. PDAs, unlike the secondary displays described above, generally include processing systems independent of the PC systems they may be docked to, i.e., these devices are typically capable of independent processing when undocked. FIG. 2 illustrates PDA 200 coupled to PC 100. As illustrated, while coupled, PDA 200 continues to function as an independent device and displays its own applications (“PDA Application #1”) while PC 100 displays a PC application (“PC Application #1”). Although PC 100 and PDA 200 may be capable of synchronizing data between the two devices, the applications for each device are managed independently. In other words, PC 100 may not utilize PDA 200's display area as a secondary display.